Brauer groups,embedding problems,and nilpotent groups as Galois groups

Let ℚ _ab denote the maximal abelian extension of the rationals ℚ, and let ℚ_abnil denote the maximal nilpotent extension of ℚ _ab . We prove that for every primep, the free pro-p group on countably many generators is realizable as the Galois group of a regular extension of ℚ_abnil(t). We also prove that ℚ_abnil is not PAC (pseudo-algebraically closed). This paper was inspired by the author's participation in a special year on the arithmetic of fields at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I would like to express my appreciation to the Institute for its hospitality, and to the organizers, especially Moshe Jarden. Partially supported by the Fund for the Promotion of Research at the Technion and by the Technion VPR Fund-Japan Technion Society Research Fund.     

Simple groups, permutation groups, and probability

We derive a new bound for the minimal degree of an almost simple primitive permutation group, and settle a conjecture of Cameron and Kantor concerning the base size of such a group. Additional results concern random generation of simple groups, and the so-called genus conjecture of Guralnick and Thompson. Our proofs are based on probabilistic arguments, together with a new result concerning the size of the intersection of a maximal subgroup of a classical group with a conjugacy class of elements.

     

Permutation groups,simple groups,and sieve methods

We show that the number of integersn≤x which occur as indices of subgroups of nonabelian finite simple groups, excluding that ofA _n−1 inA _n , is ∼hx/logx, for some given constanth. This might be regarded as a noncommutative analogue of the Prime Number Theorem (which counts indicesn≤x of subgroups of abelian simple groups). We conclude that for most positive integersn, the only quasiprimitive permutation groups of degreen areS _n andA _n in their natural action. This extends a similar result for primitive permutation groups obtained by Cameron, Neumann and Teague in 1982. Our proof combines group-theoretic and number-theoretic methods. In particular, we use the classification of finite simple groups, and we also apply sieve methods to estimate the size of some interesting sets of primes. Research partially supported by the Australian Research Council for C.E.P. and by the Bi-National Science Foundation United States-Israel Grant 2000-053 for A.S.     

Semitopological groups,Bouziad spaces and topological groups

A semitopological group (topological group) is a group endowed with a topology for which multiplication is separately continuous (multiplication is jointly continuous and inversion is continuous). In this paper we use topological games to show that many semitopological groups are in fact topological groups.     

Bounding Ext for modules for algebraic groups, finite groups and quantum groups

Given a finite root system Φ, we show that there is an integer c=c(Φ) such that , for any reductive algebraic group G with root system Φ and any irreducible rational G-modules L, L^′. There also is such a bound in the case of finite groups of Lie type, depending only on the root system and not on the underlying field. For quantum groups, a similar result holds for Extn, for any integer n?0, using a constant depending only on n and the root system. When L is the trivial module, the same result is proved in the algebraic group case, thus giving similar bounded properties, independent of characteristic, for algebraic and generic cohomology. (A similar result holds for any choice of L=L(λ), even allowing λ to vary, provided the p-adic expansion of lambda is limited to a fixed number of terms.) In particular, because of the interpretation of generic cohomology as a limit for underlying families of finite groups, the same boundedness properties hold asymptotically for finite groups of Lie type. The results both use, and have consequences for, Kazhdan–Lusztig polynomials. Appendix A proves a stable version, needed for small prime arguments, of Donkin's tilting module conjecture.     

Fuchsian groups,finite simple groups and representation varieties

Let be a Fuchsian group of genus at least 2 (at least 3 if is non-oriented). We study the spaces of homomorphisms from to finite simple groups G, and derive a number of applications concerning random generation and representation varieties. Precise asymptotic estimates for |Hom(,G)| are given, implying in particular that as the rank of G tends to infinity, this is of the form |G|^()+1+o(1), where () is the measure of . We then prove that a randomly chosen homomorphism from to G is surjective with probability tending to 1 as |G|. Combining our results with Lang-Weil estimates from algebraic geometry, we obtain the dimensions of the representation varieties , where is GL_n(K) or a simple algebraic group over K, an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. A key ingredient of our approach is character theory, involving the study of the zeta function ^G(s)=(1)^-s, where the sum is over all irreducible complex characters of G.     

Simple groups,maximal subgroups,and probabilistic aspects of profinite groups

We show that a finite simple group has at mostn ^1.875+o(1) maximal subgroups of indexn. This enables us to characterise profinite groups which are generated with positive probability by boundedly many random elements. It turns out that these groups are exactly those having polynomial maximal subgroup growth. Related results are also established.     

Configurations, braids, and homotopy groups

The main results of this article are certain connections between braid groups and the homotopy groups of the -sphere. The connections are given in terms of Brunnian braids over the disk and over the -sphere. The techniques arise from the natural structure of simplicial and -structures on fundamental groups of configuration spaces.

     

Knots,groups, subfactors and physics

Groups have played a big role in knot theory. We show how subfactors (subalgebras of certain von Neumann algebras) lead to unitary representations of the braid groups and Thompson’s groups \({F}\) and \({T}\). All knots and links may be obtained from geometric constructions from these groups. And invariants of knots may be obtained as coefficients of these representations. We include an extended introduction to von Neumann algebras and subfactors.     

Character theory of symmetric groups, subgroup growth of Fuchsian groups, and random walks

We develop a number of statistical aspects of symmetric groups (mostly dealing with the distribution of cycles in various subsets of Sn), asymptotic properties of (ordinary) characters of symmetric groups, and estimates for the multiplicities of root number functions of these groups. As main applications, we present an estimate for the subgroup growth of an arbitrary Fuchsian group, a finiteness result for the number of Fuchsian presentations of such a group (resolving a long-standing problem of Roger Lyndon), as well as a proof of a well-known conjecture of Roichman concerning the mixing time of random walks on symmetric groups.     

Polyhedral groups, McKay quivers, and the finite algebraic groups with tame principal blocks

Given an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p≥3, we classify the finite algebraic k-groups whose algebras of measures afford a principal block of tame representation type. The structure of such a group is largely determined by a linearly reductive subgroup scheme of SL(2), with the McKay quiver of relative to its standard module being the Gabriel quiver of the principal block . The graphs underlying these quivers are extended Dynkin diagrams of type or , and the tame blocks are Morita equivalent to generalizations of the trivial extensions of the radical square zero tame hereditary algebras of the corresponding type.